Why is the leader of a suspected cult going to trial? Who is UNM’s next football coach? The city is selling what surplus items online? And teachers are asked to do what because the Rio Rancho Public Schools system is broke?

Although it has been three years since my return from Iraq, I am not free of the shadows of war. The memories are insinuated into my life like falling leaves in an endless November, swirling about my feet, catching at my heels, crackling underfoot like small bones. I wake up in silence, a suggestion of desperation and exhaustion hanging in the air like the breath of a hunted animal. I blink to ward off the silence, listening for the sounds of destruction to startle me into wakefulness. But there is only the leaves rustling, swirling, like the edge of a poncho disturbed by rotor wash, revealing an arm, a leg.

You may have noticed that school administrators, their teacher employees and their contract lobbyists were in Santa Fe in early November. They were demonstrating in support of the proposed “reforms” in the public school funding formula, a “reform” now calculated to come with a price tag in excess of $320 million.

Dateline: England—Santa and three of his elves were attacked by disgruntled customers at a holiday theme park. Lapland New Forest, located on the Dorset Hampshire border, promises a magical festive experience. According to the Daily Telegraph, however, the park has received more than 1,300 complaints for its Nativity scene crudely painted on a billboard, its broken ice skating rink and its collection of bored Huskies chained up in a muddy field. Adrian Wood, 49, a worker who resigned from the park, told the newspaper, “Santa was punched by a furious father who had been waiting in line for four hours. He had got to the front only to be told he couldn’t take a picture of his children and that they weren’t allowed to sit on Santa’s lap.” Henry Mears, from Lapland New Forest Limited, admitted his staff has been attacked. “So far about six of our staff—three elves and three security—have been assaulted and all have been verbally abused.” Ivan Hancock, from Dorset County Council’s trading standards department, said, “I’ve never known anything to spark so many complaints in my 20 years of working with three different authorities.” Despite customers attacking Santa and dubbing his theme park “Crapland,” Mr. Mears insisted, “I would like to point out that 95 percent of the people who come to Lapland New Forest are extremely happy with it.”

On page 20 of the Dec. 4-10 issue there is an ad for a game called Playing Gods, featuring a green-faced Santa Claus firing a machine gun in our direction with glee. Please do not print these extremely offensive and low-class ads. Of course I am worried about the children who may glance at this, but also the deep-seated cynicism and hopelessness behind the image. Ultimately, it has been conceived of by someone who finds violence "cool." I know it's "cool" to not care about anything and to shove that nihilism into everyone's face, but you are not doing anyone a service with accepting these images from companies that are eager to make money off of anything that sells: violence, misogyny, racism, greed, revenge, cruelty and despair. I don't know what the game itself involves, but I do know that the majority of video games are all about kill, kill, kill. Think twice about buying into the corporate sponsorship of violence. It affects all of us.